Various masonry forms and spacers for supporting and spacing brick work have been developed over the years. Examples of masonry forms and spacers are disclosed by Castelli, U.S. Pat. No. 3,196,581; Castelli, U.S. Pat. No. 3,420,031; Mundy, U.S. Pat. No. 3,426,497; Wargoe, U.S. Pat. No. 3,584,426; Eberhardt, U.S. Pat. No. 3,142,938; Zack, U.S. Pat. No. 1,947,239; Reintjes, U.S. Pat. No. 2,847,849; Jones, U.S. Pat. No. 3,181,278.
The references to Castelli, Mundy and Wargoe generally teach devices for providing spacing between successive vertical rows of bricks. Each of these references relies primarily upon the lowermost row of bricks for providing the required support.
Eberhardt teaches the use of a supporting planar vertical grid with horizontal support wires together with cantilevered wire support pieces which project outwardly to support pin elements extending normally from the rear faces of the facing slabs or bricks.
Reintjes discloses a series of spaced apart horizontal stringers for supporting clips which in turn engage selective specially formed bricks for positioning the same. All of the bricks are of special configuration in order to allow interlocking thereof.
Zack discloses a planar board construction in which successive wire block or brick supporting members are integrally connected with the block and subsequently driven into the backing panel.
Jones discloses a vertical panel with attached support clips. The clips engage the bricks to hold them in the desired position. This structure requires an interlocking configuration between the individual bricks.
Each of the supporting devices taught by Eberhardt, Reintjes, Zack and Jones have limited use in that each requires the use of bricks or facing slabs having specialized construction or specialized modifications. This aspect severely limits the usefulness of these devices since they cannot be used in conjunction with standard masonry brick. Since the bricks or facing slabs must be individually designed or modified, the overall cost associated with masonry structures produced using supports taught by the prior art becomes prohibitive.